The first two times I had the dashes issue; it was that fuse. It later ended up just "killing" the cluster, while every other electrical system functioned properly.

What I found that was when I first freaked out about this, I REPLACED THE POWER CABLE... unnecessarily as it turned out! I wasn't able to route the cable as it had been when I removed the old one. My friend (an '03 Cobra guy) came by the shop one afternoon and did his "redneck beepy test" and found the bad fuse in 20 seconds. It took longer for him to figure out how to pop the hood.

The inadequate routing I did had placed the power cable to close to the EGR tubes. The main (red) cable had settled against the tube and the casing and original insulation had melted off. A small semi-circular hole had allowed the wire to arc THROUGH A 1mm PINHOLE! That contact was letting the ignition start part of the ignition circuit short-to-power... which blew the 30a Maxi a few times before the blank gauge cluster happened.

06-04-2013, 12:00 AM BOOSTED OLDS post #110
The screwdriver is pointing at the gremlin I finally found. I even reran the powe supply wire to the ignition in the column before I went under the hood and found it!Mile30 -vs- Boosted Olds (Battle Thread)

I have my post count maxed out, so the page number for you and I may differ.

Was it a fuse located under the hood or under the driver side dash board? Even more exact would be a fuse position number as well? Also, the fuse number or location from both of you will tell me if you both had the same problem. Thanks for the help guys.

-multimeter on "continuity" or "beep"
-back probe the underhood fuses, if they beep; keep moving!
-if it's the one I'm thinking of; it's the green 30a maxi fuse for the ignition circuit.

*keep in mind*
If the fuse keeps blowing you need to trace the powers and grounds! That maxi-fuse is just a protection device that's keeping the wiring from getting fried. If that same fuse keeps on being a problem; you've got metal-on-metal contact somewhere along the path. You can keep throwing new parts at it, but it won't stop the problem!

Mine was a chaffed power cable touching an EGR tube for the DPFE... it was intermittent, too. If the wire vibrated close to the metal tube, the little bit of exposed power cable would touch and arc; shorting-to-power and blowing that 30a ignition fuse... yours may be the same or similar, or a completely different spot: but electricity only acts a certain way!

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the Ford Focus Forum, Ford Focus ST Forum, Ford Focus RS Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.